imagined, that according to the usual method, I had begun at the
beginning, and would have finished at the end. Had I done so, this work
would not have been so near to a close as, thank Heaven, it is at
present. At times I have been gay, at others, sad; and I am obliged to
write according to my humour, which, as variable as the wind, seldom
continues in one direction. I have proceeded with this book as I should
do if I had had to build a ship. The dimensions of every separate piece
of timber I knew by the sheer-draught which lay before me. It therefore
made no difference upon which I began, as they all were to be cut out
before I bolted them together. I should have taken them just as they
came to hand, and sorted them for their respective uses. My keel is
laid on the slips, and my stern is raised; these will do for futtocks--
these for beams. I lay those aside for riders; and out of these gnarled
and twisted pieces of oak, I select my knees. It is of little
consequence on which my adze is first employed. Thus it was that a fit
of melancholy produced the last half of the third volume; and my
stern-post, transoms, and fashion-pieces, were framed out almost before
my floor-timbers were laid. But you will perceive that this is of no
consequence. All are now bolted together; and, with the exception of a
little dubbing away here and there, a little gingerbread work, and a
coat of paint, she is ready for launching. Now all is ready.--Give me
the bottle of wine--and, as she rushes into the sea of public opinion,
upon which her merits are to be ascertained, I christen her "THE KING'S
OWN."

And now that she is afloat, I must candidly acknowledge that I am not
exactly pleased with her. To speak technically, her figure-head is not
thrown out enough. To translate this observation into plain English, I
find, on turning over the different chapters, that my hero, as I have
often designated him, is not sufficiently the hero of my tale. As soon
as he is shipped on board of a man-of-war, he becomes as insignificant
as a midshipman must unavoidably be, from his humble situation. I see
the error--yet I cannot correct it, without overthrowing all "rules and
regulations," which I cannot persuade myself to do, even in a work of
fiction. Trammelled as I am by "the service," I can only plead guilty
to what it is impossible to amend without commencing _de novo_--for
everything and everybody must find their level on board of a k